In July I had a bolt out of the blue after going to the doctors to just get a medical certificate to cover a few days I had off work after a bout of flu. Whilst at the doctors i asked for a blood test for cholesterol, the doctor said well maybe we’ll do a full test. And lo and behold I had a call from the surgery to ask me to come into see the doctor. That was when he told me that I had a fasting blood glucose level of 17+ (normal level is 5). So, with no other family members with diabetes, a reasonably healthy diet (or so i thought) and not obese there i was with what I considered to be a death sentence or at least a shortening of my life.

My life over the last 6 years since the diagnosis seemed to be on a rapidly failing health landslide. I had also been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in February 2006. The doctors were telling me that I would be on up to 4 hypertension medications and the diabetic medication just wasn’t doing what the doctors had expected it to do. Most mornings even with taking all the prescribed medications my blood glucose rate was higher than it should be. All in all I was taking 10 pills a day and it was costing me at least $100 per month in medications.

This year 2009 all that has changed.

My daughter had been telling me that diabetes could be cured. My answers were qalways, i don’t think so, because all the literature on diabetes and doctors, health professionals had been drumming it into us “diabetics” that it’s a lifetime condition and incurable. I had attended a rawfood class given by Karen Bartz in 2008 but was really very sceptical about the whole “raw” thing, still being brainwashed by the professionals.

So, Christmas 2008, I received the DVD “Reversing Diabetes in 30 days” from my daughter and dutifully watched it but still having misgivings put it aside. Then in February I attended a lecture given by Victoria Boutenko telling us about her family story and that was the push I needed to “GO RAW”

I went home and did the “Victoria Boutenko kitchen clear-out” – the microwave went, the toaster went, the cupboards were cleared of all cooked food, the freezer emptied and the kitchen tok on a whole different look.

Within two weeks of eating raw i ame ff all my diabetic medication with no increase in blood glucose levels, in fact, they were lower than on the medication. I found that my craving for tea and coffee had gone and I used to be a strong black coffee drinker.

Since that time in February I have been learning as much as I can about Raw food and feeling absolutely fantastic. I’ve lost weight about 10kgs to date and my energy levels increased and I feel unstoppable.

I have remained on the “diet” in all but a few cooked meals I had whilst travelling in new Zealand in May. I do feel that I could have maintained this regime but felt that because I was travelling with a friend didn’t want to impose my eating habits on someone else. (Even though it would have been beneficial).

I had my 3 monthly blood glucose test this month (June 2009) which gives an average reading for the previous three month period and it returned a good result. The doctor has said that I am now a non-diabetic and don’t need the medication, but it is controlled by diet. He will not agree that the raw food diet did the trick but that the weight loss was the biggest contributor. But I couldn’t lose weight whilst I was taking medications.

I’m continuing to follow the Raw Way of living and now want the whole world to know about it.

How Anne Found Raw – And What Happened Next

My early life was not much fun. I was the eldest of 3 children in an unhappy home, where my mother stayed “for the sake of her children”. That, combined with a lot of other things, meant that guilt and fear were probably the emotions that I knew how to do best. At the age of 11, I turned to food for comfort. I had sucked my thumb up until then, but had recently been getting smacked for that. Now, food and overeating seemed accepted in it’s place, and I clung to any comfort I could get. I went from 50kg aged 11 to 76 kgs aged 13, and from there, ever upwards, to 96kgs. I think I got to 98kgs but didn’t dare go near the scales at that time. Besides, John said that if i did get on some they probably would say ”Ooof, get off!!!” His comments are so full of love, they never offend me, we both just laughed.

Fast forward in time, but I think it’s helpful to touch on the early story for background purposes and, hopefully, for someone else to see what can be overcome.

In January 2007, John took a massage course and I was asked to go along to be ‘the body’ for him to practice on. While he was being instructed, the teacher came and touched the back of my neck and shoulders and asked if I had osteoporosis. I relied confidently “No!” but she told me it was not far away and to make the most of being symptom free. Oh bother!!! So I began researching on the web to see how I could fix this naturally. I’ve never approved of medication and maybe took 2 panadol a year. I’ve always believed health is a state of mind. The news of osteoporosis was a bit of a shock as, after all, I’d been brought up on mega doses of dairy foods so this shouldn’t be happening. Hehehe. Or so I thought.

Very soon after that I was discussing with a friend how tired I always felt and she suggested that I got my thyroid function checked out. What? I was 50 years old and not ready for the scrap heap yet!!! Back to the web, never realising how much research I would be doing over the next 2 or 3 months. But this was all joy as I love learning, and that was what I was to find completely fascinated and excited me.

I very quickly found information about raw foods and exactly how many illnesses and disease it could cure. I have ever in my life read anything that made so much sense to me. I felt instantly as if i had ‘come home’ from some weird planet where they cook their foods??? I straight away started on about 75% raw eating. Basically I only ate cooked if we went out for a meal, and still had commercial salad dressings at home. Within a very few weeks I was up to about 95% raw – just kept those salad dressings as I wasn’t ready to ditch those yet. I have never looked back since, and never wanted to.

Weight literally fell off me. It did slow down for a couple of weeks and I felt really tired too, but another raw foodist made me report what I had been eating to her and it was not nearly enough; even though I was not hungry. I trusted her very much and, with my courage in both hands as everyone knows that if you eat more, you get fatter, I began to eat as much as I could. Within 2 days, I had my energy back, was bouncing around like a two year old, and the weight started to drop off again.

For exercise, pre raw, i used to walk a couple of times a week. A 4km walk took me an hour because my shin muscles would lock up and burn if i walked any speed at all. I have since found that this was a magnesium deficiency. When I finished my walk, even on a cool day, i always had a bright scarlet coloured face from the exertion. After going raw the muscle tightness just disappeared for the first time in my adult life and I can now walk comfortably at any speed.

My life’s dream of being able to run has also come true. I do a junk mail delivery round twice a week now and cover 6kms each time. It’s a fairly hilly area – up hills and down – and I am now running almost all of the downhill bits and some of the flat. I’ve even recently started to run a little of the uphill sections. And this is carrying a bag full of heavy junk mail, though, I have to admit, it doesn’t weigh even half of what I’ve lost.